Autonomous driving technology has experienced rapid development in recent years. An autonomous vehicle may be able to operate without the control by a driver inside the vehicle. An autonomous vehicle may be configured to operate in different modes, such as an autonomous mode or in a manual mode. In an autonomous mode, the autonomous vehicle may be controlled by, for example, an automated control system, a remote driver and/or system, etc. In a manual mode, the autonomous vehicle may be controlled by a person inside the vehicle. The person may still sit on the driver seat when autonomous vehicle operates in the autonomous mode, but the person does not need to control the autonomous vehicle and does not need to focus on the road.
One commonly encountered situation that poses a difficult challenge to autonomous driving is lack of communication between an autonomous vehicle and other users of the road (e.g., other vehicles, pedestrians, etc.). A road user typically relies on the driver of an approaching vehicle to provide certain signals (e.g., a gesture, eye movement, other types of body language, verbal communication, etc.) to predict what the approaching vehicle will do. The road user can then take certain actions (e.g., cross the street or drive through an intersection in front of the approaching vehicle) based on the prediction. However, in a case where an autonomous vehicle operates in the autonomous mode, there may be either no human driver in the vehicle to provide the signal, or a person sitting on the driver seat who is not paying attention to the road and cannot provide the signal.
Therefore, to improve safety and to facilitate the safe usage of the road by other road users, there is a need to enable an autonomous vehicle to signal a future action of the vehicle to other road users in an effective and intuitive way.